The Washington D.C. business think tank, the Conference Board, estimated there were 2.5 unemployed workers for every posted job opening in Idaho in October.
More than 7,000 Idahoans have left the labor force since May, says the state Labor Department, and that’s why Idaho’s jobless rate continues to decline.
The Idaho Department of Labor’s monthly unemployment report shows the jobless rate dropped one-tenth of a percentage point from September to October. The 7.0 percent seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is the state’s lowest in three and a half years.
The Labor Department writes October’s lower rate “was the result of another 1,100 workers leaving the state labor force.” That means the state has seen five straight months of workforce decline. “The only other year the labor force was smaller in October than May was 1980 between the 1980 and 1981 recessions,” the department’s release says. Continue Reading →
Idaho is one of a dozen states that is still studying its options with respect to health insurance exchanges.
Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter got a reprieve, if he wants it. Friday, Nov. 16 was supposed to be the final day for states to tell the federal government whether they will set up their own health insurance exchanges.
It was a deadline established by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to ensure the exchanges are online by 2014. But Republican governors asked for more time, and yesterday they got it.
The Idaho Legislature does not convene again until early next year, so this decision still falls to the governor. And if Gov. Otter follows the conclusions reached by his working group last month and determines that Idaho should build its own exchange, there’s little doubt the Legislature will also have to get on-board. Continue Reading →
Now, that list is itself producing consternation. As The Spokesman-Review’s Scott Maben writes of the bonuses that will be distributed in the Coeur d’Alene School District:
Teachers will receive bonuses of up to $4,142 in the coming weeks, though some who teach at underperforming schools will receive nothing, even if they’re among the best educators in a school district. — The Spokesman-Review
Critics of the three defeated education laws known as Students Come First have been quick to make this observation: that the bonuses appear to reward well-off schools. Continue Reading →
Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna held a roundtable meeting with Idaho media yesterday. It was the first time Luna had spoken publicly since voters rejected the Students Come First laws.
The Idaho Attorney General’s office says school districts have until December 15, 2012 to distribute roughly $38 million in teacher bonuses that were part of an education law voters overturned last week.
Voters rejected Proposition 2 on Nov. 6. That’s the provision that asked voters whether to uphold or repeal Idaho’s pay for performance plan the Legislature approved in 2011.
As we reported last week, school districts will have that bonus money by Nov. 15, but until today, it was unclear if districts had a deadline to distribute that bonus pay to teachers who earned it over the last school year.
Here’s the written opinion from Idaho’s Deputy Attorney General Andrew Snook:
The group considering the Medicaid expansion met at the Capitol today
All fourteen members of Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter’s Medicaid Expansion Work Group arrived at the same opinion this afternoon: Medicaid eligibility should be expanded in Idaho. It was the conclusion of a months-long discussion and research set in motion when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Affordable Care Act earlier this year.
Expanding Medicaid eligibility to low-income adults living at or below 138 percent of the federal poverty line is a key component of the federal health care law. But the Supreme Court’s June ruling in effect granted states the right to choose whether to adopt the expansion.
This morning, Gov. Otter’s working group heard a presentation from consulting group Milliman, which was hired by the state to assess the costs and savings of the state’s options. The report estimates expanding Idaho’s Medicaid program would save the state money between now and the year 2024. That’s because the federal government will at first cover 100 percent of the cost of expansion, phased down to 90 percent by 2020. Continue Reading →
This flag was on display at White Pine Elementary in Boise on Election Day.
It’s been quite a week.
The big story here at StateImpact Idaho has been voters’ rejection of Students Come First, the three-part education overhaul approved by the Legislature in 2011. All of our must-read stories are about Propositions 1, 2 and 3 and the fallout of Idahoans’ powerful “no” votes. In this list, we have data analysis, a photo slideshow, and some regular old reporting. Don’t miss it.
When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Affordable Care Act in June, several big decisions about health care policy landed in state leaders' laps. One of them: whether or not to expand Medicaid eligibility.
The working group that is studying whether Idaho should expand its Medicaid program holds its third — and perhaps final — meeting today. The group established by Governor Otter in July is charged with understanding the implications of expanding Medicaid eligibility to adults living at or below 138 percent of the poverty line.
The Medicaid expansion is a component of the Affordable Care Act. When the U.S. Supreme court upheld the law in June, it ruled that the federal government cannot require states to either expand their Medicaid programs or forfeit all federal Medicaid funding. That is: the court granted states a choice. Continue Reading →
"Vote No" buttons and bracelets were in good supply at the campaign's election night gathering.
Idaho voters rejected the state’s merit pay plan for teachers when they said no to Proposition 2 this week. However, many schools and teachers have earned bonuses for work over the last year, during which the Students Come First laws were in place.
Now, whether or not that money will get into teachers’ hands is uncertain.
This much we know: the state is legally obligated to send bonus money to school districts by November 15. Idaho’s secretary of state has said that for weeks, and the state’s attorney general agrees. The money has to go out even though voters rejected the law, because the law remains in place until election results are certified on Nov. 21. Continue Reading →
Idaho’s Division of Financial Management reports state revenue came in 4.6 percent below projections for October.
DFM’s monthly general fund revenue report shows individual and corporate income taxes came in below expectations, while Idaho’s sales tax collections exceeded forecasters’ predictions.
Division of Financial Management
October revenue came in at $206.3 million, which is $10 million less than predicted. Fiscal-year-to-date general fund collections are at $874.7 million, which is $6.9 million — or less than a percentage point — below the state’s forecast.
The general fund is the main bank account the Legislature uses to fund state agencies. Lawmakers watch these revenue numbers to see how much money can be appropriated to certain programs each budget cycle.
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